Nanoloop

Apps have come and gone on my phone. There's only one app that I've played with nonstop for years.

 Nanoloop.

I was introduced to it by Doctor Popular one night over dinner. I was instantly hooked. It's an ingeniously simple chiptune program. The thing I love about this program is that you have to make every sample by hand. It even allows you to work so granular as to make each note a unique sound. This program and a pair of headphones has been responsible for countless extended bathroom breaks.

A video posted by Jason Baldwin (@jasonsbaldwin) on Nov 19, 2015 at 10:57pm PST

One of my nanoloop tracks

It was originally designed for the gameboy and gameboy advance, so the interface and graphics are extremely sparse. The first time I looked at was like looking at Sanskrit; a bunch of abstract symbols with no context. Add to that the fact that each sound has to be created from scratch, it means the initial sessions can be daunting. A buddy of mine put it best,"...how you manage to make anything that doesn't sound like sonar bloops and pack-man noises using Nanoloop is a mystery to me."

But once you get the hang of it, it's incredibly intuitive. I love it so much that I finally gave in and bought a gameboy advance and a proper nanoloop cartridge.

While nanoloop on the iphone simulates chiptune sounds, nanoloop on the gameboy uses the gameboy sound chip to create sounds. The result is a much clearer, crisper, nostalgic sound. The downside is that you're introduced to all the hardware limitations of the 8 bit era and a brand new learning curve. After my first session with it, I solemnly placed the gameboy in my junk drawer. I'll get back to it someday...

Edit: After posting this, Doctor Popular sent me the nanoloop file of a song he'd made from some middleschooler's vocal samples (see comments). I made this quick remix and had a blast doing it!

The original song and blog post is HERE.